FIAF

The Department of Education just rolled out a request for $64 million dollars for their “College Completion Tool Kit” What the heck is it, and why are we supposed to spend $64 million on it? It’s Obama’s plan to get more kids to go, and complete, college.

But what is it really? Payoff to folks in the field of higher education. More jobs for them. Further growth. Just what they need.

On the solution side of the ledger, our educational system has no shortage of bureaucrats at local and state levels. It’s a safe bet that solutions proposed in this new program will not be innovative in the slightest and will simply pump more money into the mid-level education bureaucracies that have exploded in the last decades, funding more federal grant writers and federal administrators to supervise state administrators who supervise university administrators. Pursuing a college education is a decision made by millions of individuals, who must weigh the earnings sacrificed and debt incurred against other options. Why does the federal government have to insert itself in these decisions?

College is too expensive, and for many the payoff is marginal. Not “everyone” needs to go to college.
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While deficit reduction will eventually be a solid idea to tackle when economic growth is steady and unemployment is back down to six or seven percent, until then it should never be addressed during a slow-growth, jobless recovery months after a major recession. Why? When families are tightening their collective belts, as the short-sited metaphor goes, the government is in a unique position to spend money in order to make up the difference.